[Web4lib] Attending/Presenting at conferences in difficult times

[Robert Balliot]

I started working on state-wide Polycom video conferences with libraries and
schools about eight years ago for events such as:
Jason's<http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx>Louisiana
Wetlands Project, the Titanic Project with Robert Ballard, and a
conversation with Ray Bradbury on the 50th anniversary of Fahrenheit
451<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451>.
That was before really fast broadband was available at so many locations, so
there was a bit of video and audio degradation.

The quality was acceptable though and the process itself was efficient.  I
don't think everyone who participated would have been able to 'shake the
hand' of the featured guests.  The events would have simply been hand
shaking.  But, whiteboards and vetted questions allowed for some pretty
significant and fruitful interaction.  Locally, Raytheon set up the first
video conferencing capabilities that I am aware of in Rhode Island.  Their
process reduced cost and created effective, efficient interactive
meetings. It is very expensive and can be extremely dangerous to move people
back and forth to have face to face meetings.

For event organizers, there is certainly great value in selling the idea
that you need to be in a room and maybe smell and touch the participants.
You can fill meeting rooms, hotel rooms, rental cars, restaurants, sell gas,
sell novelties, sell print brochures and signs, collect taxes, create
insurance risks, create health risks, and expend personnel hours on travel
time. In the end you may achieve the actual intent of a couple hours of
meaningful dialog.

When I look at what CISCO now offers for businesses and
education<http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/video/ps1870/index.html>
in terms of efficient telepresence, it is clear that you can achieve
meaningful dialog without the added expense. If you really feel the need to
shake hands, perhaps scratch and sniff, animatronics and some 3D glasses can
achieve the same effect.

R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com


On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Jill O'Neill <jilloneill at nfais.org> wrote:

> Speaking as an event organizer, I am sure that most conferences are seeing
> shifts in a variety of ways. Certainly speakers require more subsidization
> of travel. Organizations don't send as many people to a single conference
> as
> they might have done five years ago. Costs are up in the hospitality
> industry in terms of catering and that too may force associations to
> re-evaluate traditional practices in supplying attendees. There are the
> issues associated with technology (such as supplying wi-fi to registrants).
>
> That said, one of the most frequently cited rationales for attending a
> conference in a face-to-face setting is associated with the opportunity to
> meet the real person. Doing it online offsets limited travel, but there's
> nothing like shaking a hard in real time and in real space to cement a
> connection.
>
> So, John, I would suggest to you that conference attendance *will* change
> over the course of the next ten years, but we're not entirely done with
> physical bodies gathering in a ballroom to discuss issues and celebrate
> successes!
>
> And while we're on the topic of attending conferences, this year's NFAIS
> Annual Conference features speakers Clay Shirky, Lorcan Dempsey, John
> Wilbanks, and Peter Brantley (http://bit.ly/5TOr1q). The venue is the
> Hyatt
> at the Bellevue in Philadelphia and the dates are February 28-Mar 2, 2009.
> But the theme of the conference is what is most relevant to this audience,
> Redefining the Value of Information: Exploring the New Equation!
>
> Jill
>
>
> Jill O'Neill
> Director, Planning & Communication
> NFAIS
> (v) 215-893-1561
> (email) jilloneill at nfais.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of John Fereira
> Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 6:53 AM
> To: a.j.p.van.den.brekel at med.umcg.nl
> Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Web4lib] Attending/Presenting at conferences in difficult times
>
> a.j.p.van.den.brekel at med.umcg.nl wrote:
> > International conference on emerging technologies in academic libraries
> 2010 (emtacl10)
> > 26-28 April 2010, Trondheim, Norway
> >
> > This is a new international conference for academic librarians,
> information professionals, academic staff, students, library system
> developers and suppliers, among others. The conference aims to provide
> answers to the following questions: What can academic libraries do to
> address change? How can we adapt? Which technologies can/should/must we
> use/create? (View the conference programme
> > <http://www.ntnu.no/ub/emtacl/?programme>)
>
> This looks like a good conference.  "Unfortunately" I'm going to be
> presenting a workshop at a conference in Montpellier, France on the
> 28th. Feel my pain.
>
> Actually, the real reason for responding (although I changed the
> subject) was that I was wondering how others managed to go to
> conferences such as these across the pond (for those of us in North
> America).
>
> I've been on the planning committee for an open source organization
> (Jasig) conference for the past several years and the registration
> numbers for our upcoming and previous conference are way down.  Most
> institutions just won't foot the bill to send people to conferences.
> Over the past couple of years it seems that almost every conference
> announcement I see eventually has a "registration deadline extended"
> post so I suspect that conferences in general are getting lower
> attendance figures.
>
>
> At my library I can essentially attend only one library funded
> conference a year (my attendance at one in Montpellier is being paid for
> by an external source).  Do ya'll pay your own way to some of the
> conferences that you attend?  The Handheld Librarian conference last
> year and the one upcoming have set a pretty good precedent for how
> effective a virtual conference can be.  Is that the direction that we
> will be going?  While I made a lot of good contacts through the last
> hhlib, those face-to-face encounters just can be duplicated virtually.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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